The present invention relates to an information storage medium and an apparatus for reproducing information from the information storage medium, and more particularly to an information storage medium suitable for storing musical accompaniments, so-called "karaoke", and an apparatus for reproducing information from the information storage medium.
A conventional apparatus for playing back pre-recorded musical accompaniments, or a musical accompaniment playback apparatus, reproduces such pre-recorded musical accompaniments by playing back information recording medium, such as magnetic tapes, video disks, etc., on which only musical accompaniments are recorded. Such a musical accompaniment playback apparatus includes an amplifier connected to a microphone and a loudspeaker, and mixes vocal signals supplied from the microphone with signals o reproduced musical accompaniments, amplifies the mixed signals, and supplies the amplified signals to the loudspeaker to produce audible sounds.
When a user of the musical accompaniment playback apparatus wants to sing vocal passages of a desired music piece or song recorded in an information storage medium, it is necessary for the user to confirm the words with a song book, subtitles displayed on a video screen or the like.
Some users may desire to use the musical accompaniment playback apparatus in passenger oars. It would be convenient if the user were able to know the words of a desired music piece or song without song book, displayed subtitles, or the like. Certain musical accompaniments do not contain clear information that would indicate a time to start singing. Therefore, it would be advantageous if musical accompaniments would give the user a clue to the timing about when to start to sing the song.